Did 'Killers of the Flower Moon' win any Oscars? Oklahoma-made movie nominated for 10
For a cinema legend, Martin Scorsese is on quite the Oscars losing streak.
On Sunday, the iconic director's made-in-Oklahoma epic "Killers of the Flower Moon" became his fourth straight feature film to be nominated for at least one Oscar but get shut out at the Academy Awards.
The biggest movie ever made in Oklahoma also became Scorsese's third film — after 2019's “The Irishman” and 2002's “Gangs of New York” — to get 10 Academy Award nominations but not win a single Oscar.
Filmed in and around Osage County in 2021, Scorsese's 3 1/2-hour epic "Killers of the Flower Moon" was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture. But it encountered explosive competition in "Oppenheimer," which dominated this year's Academy Awards with seven wins, including best picture.
Still, it was "Poor Things" star Emma Stone's win over "Killers of the Flower Moon" trailblazer Lily Gladstone in the best actress contest that was the arguably the toughest Oscar loss for Scorsese's fact-based epic.
Here's the breakdown of how "Killers of the Flower Moon" went home empty-handed at this year's 96th Academy Awards:
Best picture: 'Oppenheimer' dominates the Oscars
"Killers of the Flower Moon" was acclaimed for shining a light on a dark and often-overlooked chapter of Oklahoma and American history: The 1920s "Reign of Terror," a series of brutal murders of Osage Nation citizens by white people scheming to steal their oil wealth.
Before any Oscars envelopes had been opened, "Killers of the Flower Moon" set at least seven Academy Awards records with its nominations, largely for the film's unprecedented Indigenous representation.
It's unfortunate that Scorsese's revealing fact-based Western was forced to face off against another powerful historical epic in "Oppenheimer." Christopher Nolan's atomic bomb biopic proved a dominant force throughout this awards season. Going into the Oscars with a leading 13 nominations, it won seven Academy Awards, including the top prize.
Best director: Nolan wins and continues Scorsese's losing streak
With his best director nomination for "Killers of the Flower Moon," Scorsese set two Academy Awards records: He has been nominated for best director 10 times, becoming the most nominated living director in Academy Awards history, and at 81, the New Yorker is the oldest best director nominee in Oscars history.
Here's more startling numbers: Scorsese's last four films —"Killers of the Flower Moon," "The Irishman," 2016's "Silence" and 2013's "The Wolf of Wall Street"— received a combined 26 Academy Award nominations but won a total of zero Oscars.
Despite his status as a cinema icon, Scorsese has only won one competitive Oscar: best director in 2007 for his gangster epic "The Departed."
This year, Nolan took home his first Oscar in the best director category for "Oppenheimer," quickly winning his second for best picture.
Best actress: With Lily Gladstone's Oscar loss, 'Killers' goes winless
In a contest that seemed neck-in-neck all awards season, Stone's win over Gladstone in the closely watched best actress contest was considered Oscar night's biggest upset. It was a particularly stinging loss, and not just because it was considered the most likely category for "Killers of the Flower Moon" to secure an Academy Awards victory.
For her powerhouse portrayal of Mollie Kyle Burkhart — a wealthy real-life Osage woman who was marked for death in the Reign of Terror in 1920s Oklahoma — Gladstone, who is NiMíiPuu, or Nez Perce, and Siksikaitsitapi, or Blackfeet, was the first Native American to be nominated for best actress in the nearly 100-year history of the Academy Awards.
Had she taken home the best actress statuette, she would have been the first Native American actor to win a competitive Oscar. (In 2019, Cherokee actor and Oklahoma native Wes Studi won an honorary Oscar.)
Instead, a visibly shocked Stone scored her second Oscar — she previously won best actress for 2016's "La La Land" — and many Indigenous writers and performers, along with other critics and journalists, voiced their disappointment on social media.
Some pointed out the Academy's dismal track record for honoring women of color in the category: "Everything Everywhere All at Once" star Michelle Yeoh last year became just the second woman of color to win best actress, after Halle Berry for 2002's "Monster's Ball."
Best supporting actor: 'Oppenheimer's' Robert Downey Jr. completes awards season sweep
During Sunday's Oscars, host Jimmy Kimmel noted that Robert De Niro, nominated for best supporting actor for "Killers of the Flower Moon," and Jodie Foster, nominated for best supporting actress for "Nyad," were both nominated 48 years ago for their turns in Scorsese's 1976 drama "Taxi Driver."
With "Killers of the Flower Moon," De Niro, 80, received his ninth Oscar nod for portraying greedy cattle baron William K. Hale, who pretended to be a friend to the Osage people while conspiring to kill many of them to steal their oil wealth.
A two-time Oscar winner, De Niro's "Killers of the Flower Moon" nomination came 49 years after his first Oscar nomination, for best supporting actor for Francis Ford Coppola's mobster drama "The Godfather Part II" in 1975. That gave De Niro the distinction of the actor with the greatest length of time between his first and most recent Oscar nominations.
Despite widespread praise for De Niro's sinister turn in "Killers of the Flower Moon," comeback kid Robert Downey Jr. completed his awards season sweep with an Oscar for his slippery portrayal of "Oppenheimer" antagonist Lewis Strauss, one of the original members of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
Best original song: Osage Tribal Singers' performance heralded as historic
Del City resident Scott George and his fellow Osage Tribal Singers received a lengthy standing ovation for their live performance on Sunday's Academy Awards, which was heralded online as historic and moving.
Accompanied by dancers in full regalia, the group of Osage Nation singers gathered around the drum on Hollywood's most celebrated stage to perform “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)," the Oscar-nominated song George composed for “Killers of the Flower Moon."
George was the first Indigenous nominee in the best original song category as well as the first member of the Osage Nation to be nominated for an Academy Award.
But Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O'Connell, took the prize for their "Barbie" ode "What Was I Made For?" At just 22 years old, Eilish is the youngest two-time Oscar winner, after winning best song in 2022 with her James Bond anthem "No Time to Die."
It was the only Oscars win for the blockbuster "Barbie."
Best score: Ludwig G?ransson scores second Oscar for 'Oppenheimer'
Despite his 45-year partnership with Scorsese, the late Robbie Robertson, who died last August at the age of 80, earned his first Oscar nod posthumously for best score for "Killers of the Flower Moon."
The guitarist and primary songwriter for The Band, he was the first Indigenous nominee in the category: The son of a Cayuga and Mohawk mother, Robertson lived on the Six Nations Reserve in Canada southwest of Toronto as a youth.
But it was another win for "Oppenheimer," with Swedish composer Ludwig G?ransson, who previously won for "Black Panther," scoring his second best score Oscar.
Best editing: 'Oppenheimer' wins the battle of three-hour-plus epics
Already a three-time Oscar winner for editing Scorsese's "The Departed," "The Aviator" and "Raging Bull," Thelma Schoonmaker became the most nominated film editor in Academy Awards' history with "Killers of the Flower Moon." She has earned nine career nods in the category.
Kimmel made fun of the length of the past year's top movies in his Oscars opening monologue, joking that "'Killers of the Flower Moon' is so long, in the time it takes you to watch it, you could drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders yourself."
But the best editing category was a battle of three-hour-plus epics that went to Jennifer Lame for "Oppenheimer."
Best cinematography: Another win for 'Oppenheimer'
Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto earned an Oscar nomination for his gorgeous work on "Killers of the Flower Moon" and was acclaimed for his excellent "Barbie" cinematography, too.
But the four-time Oscar nominee was another one to lose out to the "Oppenheimer" juggernaut, with Hoyte van Hoytema taking home best cinematography for his innovative efforts on Nolan's blockbuster.
Best costume design: Fantastical looks from 'Poor Things' win the prize
Although "Killers of the Flower Moon" costume designer Jacqueline West worked closely with the Osage Nation, forging a tight bond with lead Osage wardrobe consultant Julie O'Keefe and building a talented team of Osage beadworkers, jewelry makers, ribbon work artists and more to create nearly 4,000 stunning and accurate costume pieces, her efforts didn't lead to Oscars gold.
Instead, Holly Waddington won the statuette for her fantastical designs for "Poor Things," besting West, Jacqueline Durran for "Barbie," Janty Yates and Dave Crossman for "Napoleon" and Ellen Mirojnick for "Oppenheimer." Waddington accepted her trophy from presenter John Cena, who went nearly nude on stage in an homage to the infamous 1974 Oscars streaker.
Best production design: Another win for 'Poor Things'
If "Killers of the Flower Moon" wasn't being bested by "Oppenheimer," it was losing out to "Poor Things," which earned four Oscars, including best production design.
"Killers of the Flower Moon" was actually made in the Osage Nation, and production designer Jack Fisk and set designer Adam Willis devised visually striking locations while staying painstakingly true to the story's 1920s time period.
But production designers James Price and Shona Heath, along with set decorator Zsuzsa Mihalek, won the Oscar for director Yorgos Lanthimos' absurdist take on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Did 'Killers of the Flower Moon' win any Oscars? Results on 10 noms